"Online video-rental service Netflix and giant LG Electronics on Wednesday said they will develop a set-top box that lets consumers stream video content from the Internet to high-definition TVs," reports USA Today.

HBO has announced the renewal of both "Entourage" and "Flight of the Conchords," returning in 2008. The complete press release is available below.

The SXSW program, "SXSW Presents", airing locally on KLRU in Austin, TX, will return for a second season next month, according to the festival. Fest producer Matt Dentler will again host the program which is set to premiere Friday, September 16 on KLRU (the Austin PBS outlet), channel 18, cable channel 9 at 10 p.m.. The 90-minute episodes include features and shorts, with Arthur Bradford's "How's Your News" tapped for the first episode.

Sundance Channel announced today the acquisition of U.S. pay television rights to Jeremy Gilley’s Peace One Day. The film was acquired from Films Transit, and will premiere on Sundance Channel on the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21st at 9:00pm ET/PT. The film will also be available on Netflix.com in late September. For more information, visit the Sundance Channel website.

The New York Times’ Lorne Manly reports on the “questionable” placement of an ad encouraging WNYC listeners to contact their Congressional representative before a House subcommittee votes on cutting $100 million from the budgets of National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting during a broadcast on the same topic. Umm…I’m sorry, your problem is with what again? Oh, that’s right, the public service announcement informing the public about an issue affecting the public on National Public Radio. I'll try to stay focused next time.

Most Americans would now rather watch films at home than at the cinema, a poll has suggested. Seventy three per cent of adults said they preferred watching movies at home on DVD, video or pay-per-view to going to a cinema.
The survey of 1,000 adults also found that 47% said films were getting worse. BBC reports.

Reel NY celebrates a decade of screening NYC's best indie films with a premiere this Friday, June 17 that is specifically curated for it's anniversary. Short filmmakers include Jem Cohen, Marina Zurkow, Greg Pak, Kathy High, Edin Velez, Michael P. Britto, Jennie Livingston, Todd Downing, Nicole Franklin, and Kimi Takesue. Reel NY will be screening Fridays this summer on Thirteen, WNET New York.

"Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock talks with the New York Times about his new FX cable network TV show, "30 Days":

So, while he will be the host and narrator of the entire series, Mr. Spurlock is the subject of only one episode - the June 15 series debut, in which he and Ms. Jamieson spend 30 days trying to live on the minimum wage in Columbus, Ohio. Later episodes will focus on a Christian man living for 30 days with a Muslim family in Dearborn, Mich.; a straight man spending 30 days with a gay couple in San Francisco; a woman who takes on the binge-drinking experiment to make a point to her college-age daughter; an over-the-hill athlete who tries steroids to regain his former glory; and, Mr. Spurlock says, "a family of mass consumers who go to an experimental eco-village where they live, essentially, off the grid for 30 days."

Sundance Channel has acquired U.S. pay television rights to Tell Them Who You Are, a documentary film about legendary Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (The Thomas Crown Affair). Directed by his son, Mark Wexler, the film will make its U.S. television premiere on Sundance Channel in 2006. For more information, visit the Sundance Channel website.

Super Size Me Director Morgan Spurlock will be hitting the small screen this summer in a new reality TV show called 30 Days. Inspired by the stunning success of the $75,000-budget documentary which chronicled the breakdown of Morgan’s health after ingesting three McDonald’s meals a day for one month, the new show will place Americans—including Morgan and his fiancé—in a variety of life-altering circumstances, reports Reuters.

After a recent executive shuffle (and a few layoffs), Sundance Channel has announced the launch of a new six-part weekly series. "Iconoclasts" will debut on the cable network in November. The program is a partnership between Sundance Channel, Grey Goose Entertainment, and Condè Nast Media Group. Robert Redford will executive produce. The goal of the show is, according to Sundance, "to present intimate, unpredictable portraits of today’s provocative creative leaders and in the process reveal (their) passions, process and creative aspirations."

BC could create Internet blogs for its top news anchors and celebrity interviewers as it seeks to maintain the appeal of U.S. network news, its top executive said on Tuesday. NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said entering the generally opinionated world of blogs might be one way television networks could keep their grip on viewers who increasingly use the Internet for news. Reuters reports.

FX has ordered six episodes of "30 Days," a documentary-style, unscripted series from Sundance Film Festival sensation Morgan Spurlock and Ben Silverman's Reveille. The hourlong series, set to premiere in the summer, adapts for television the concept of Spurlock's critically acclaimed documentary "Super Size Me," which earned him the directing award in the documentary category at this year's Sundance. While "Super Size" centered on the effects of Spurlock eating every meal at McDonald's for a month, "30 Days" plants an individual into a lifestyle that is completely different from his or her upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession. For example, in the pilot a Christian insurance salesman from West Virginia lives with a Muslim family in Michigan.

(By Kimberly Speight, Reuters/Hollywood Reporter)

In the Village Voice, Joy Press explores the work of indie filmmakers on cable television dramas:

It's a great time to be a couch potato—if you have cable, that is. Why pay for a movie ticket and popcorn when you can stay at home and watch strikingly original, beautifully filmed drama, directed by some of the country's most talented independent filmmakers, on your very own TV set? While the networks wallow in reality-TV and makeover pablum, the "highbrow" end of the medium—HBO, Showtime, etc.—has remade itself as the natural habitat for drama that's as inventive and daring as many films.

"In a rare move, NBC will present a documentary about capital punishment, 'Deadline,' that played at the Sundance Film Festival on 'Dateline NBC.,'" Bernard Weinraub reports for the New York Times.

Is it Smithers? "A character from The Simpsons is to be revealed as gay, sparking a mystery among fans over who it will be," BBC reports.